(61% - 80%)
While you do get a bit of sleep every night and sometimes leave the house, you spend as
much time as you can online. You usually have a browser, chat clients, server consoles,
and your email on auto check open at all times. Phone? What's that? You plan your social
events by contacting your friends online. Just be careful you don't get a repetitive wrist
injury...

Scott showed up yesterday morning, wrecking equipment in hand. A mere 2-3 hours later,
he had taken the bathroom down to the studs.

Theres no turning back now. Were really going to have a new bathroom.

Our time for remodeling is way overdue. In the 30+ years weve lived here we have
done little to the house. Of course, when you move into a brand spanking new house, you
dont think of remodeling anything. And then when you have five rough-and-tumble kids
(well four rough-and-tumble kids and Jeri, cause she knows better), thinking of doing any
remodeling or repairing sounds like an exercise in futility, because it would soon go the
way of all walls, doors, and other moving parts in the house.

Ned decided several years ago that it was time to paint the outside of the house. I
cant remember how long ago that was, but it had to be over 10 years now because they
borrowed power painting equipment from my stepfather, who died 10 years ago. All the kids
helped and the result was great, but they all vowed theyd never ever attempt a job
like that again.

They also decided to paint the family room on year when one of the guys from Zaire was
living with us. I have photos somewhere of them all covered with paint. They did a great
job.

Walt painted the stairwell before we had new carpeting installed last year, and in my
frenzy of cleaning up and making the house look presentable, I finally had him buy a new
door for the downstairs bathroom. Its the first thing you see when the front door is
opened, and its had a hole in it, where one of the kids punched it, for years.
(There are also holes in doors and walls all over the house, but this one is visible.)

Ohand of course to pay me back for some money he borrowed from me, Ned painted
the guest bedroom into what has become appropriately called "the Pepto Room,"
because 3 of the four walls are the color of Pepto Bismol and the fourth wall is a darker
pink.

Other than that, weve pretty much gone by the philosophy of "live and let
live" and havent done much around here, except replace the roof a couple of
years ago--we were very lucky that it lasted as long as it did.

The bathroom project was supposed to happen before Peggy came here in 2000. But the guy
I contracted with never came back and so its been sitting here untouched ever since.

Now, however, we have Scott and Im very excited to think about replacing the
floor which has had gouges in it for years, the crumbling tile, and getting the room
painted as well. The idea of "redecorating" is such a foreign one to me, I
hardly know what to do with myself.

The problem, of course, with starting a project like this is the very cliche one. Once
you start thinking of fixing things up, there are suddenly 1,000 things that start calling
out for fixing. This was going to be just replacing the tile, but I expanded it to
include replacing the tub, putting in a new floor, replacing the mirror and light over the
mirror and painting the walls.

We have not settled on a final figure, but it all has to be done, so I figure it has to
get done sooner or later and we might as well just get it all done at once.

Now Im looking at the holes in the kitchen floor, the kids are telling me how
outdated our dark wood panel cupboards are, the living room rug looks very
threadbare....we could spend another 30 years just fixing up the deterioration from the
first 30!

But Im happy to just start with the bathroom. With Walt and I now both leaving
for work at pretty much the same time, trying to negotiate shower time is frustrating, but
soon that will no longer be a problem.

We may eventually replace the downstairs floors and the rug(s) and the kitchen
cabinets, but for now Im just happy contemplating the very imminent coming of my new
bathroom and that makes me very happy.